The Japanese government has confirmed that it excluded South Africa from the G7 summit because it believes that Pretoria can no longer speak for the continent on international affairs.
The announcement that South Africa was not invited to the summit shocked some in the diplomatic community as the country had been a regular at the meeting.
Last month the Presidency sent out an invitation to reporters to accompany President Cyril Ramaphosa to Hiroshima, saying he would travel there at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. However, on Monday the media was told that Ramaphosa would no longer be attending the summit.
Speculation is rife about the Japanese government's about turn. Western countries, especially the US, are unhappy about Pretoria’s stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The government has taken a “neutral” position and refused to condemn Russia. Instead, South Africa will roll out the red carpet for Russian President Vladmir Putin when he attends the Brics summit in August.
“We understand that there are diverging opinions over current international issues among African countries, and the AU is the organisation that can represent Africa's common voice. There are no other particular reasons not to invite individual countries from Africa, including South Africa,” the Japanese embassy here told the Sunday Times.
In June last year, Ramaphosa participated in the G7 summit in Germany at the invitation of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The president downplayed the snub, saying it was the host country’s prerogative to invite whoever it wanted and South Africa was not “disappointed” that it had been excluded.
International relations minister Naledi Pandor said: “The decision wasn’t to invite the AU instead of South Africa. We always have South Africa and the AU chair attending the summit. We are not certain as to what happened but the country that is the chair decides on who the guests will be.
“It’s their decision entirely. I don’t think there is anything untoward. We are very good friends with them and we will find out what happened.
We understand that there are diverging opinions over current international issues among African countries, and the AU is the organisation that can represent Africa's common voice
— Japanese embassy
“I am not sure how they missed South Africa but it’s not a big deal,” Pandor said.
The invitation sent to the media on March 29 said: “South Africa has been a regular invitee of the G7 and its participation presents an opportunity for the country to highlight the concerns of developing countries and to advocate for the continued global attention for equitable distribution of resources.”
However, on Monday the Presidency said: “The Japanese government, which is hosting the G7, decided for its version of the summit to invite the AU instead of individual countries from Africa. The president of Comoros [Azali Assoumani], who is the [AU] chair, will attend the G7 plus meetings and not South Africa.”
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya declined to comment.
A senior government official told the Sunday Times that “it was obvious that it was over the tensions with the US”, while another source rejected this, saying G7 countries were divided on geopolitical matters.
The Japanese embassy told the Sunday Times that its government had invited India (G20 chair), Indonesia (ASEAN chair), Australia, South Korea, Cook Islands (PIF chair), Comoros (AU chair) , Brazil and Vietnam, along with a few international organisations.
It said that as Kishida stated at informal talks with Ramaphosa in Indonesia on November 15 last year: “South Africa is an important partner for Japan.”
South Africa’s ambassador to Japan, Smuts Ngonyama, said he had submitted a report to Pandor and Ramaphosa.
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